David Eugene Smith

David Eugene Smith (1860–1944) was an American mathematician, educator and historian of mathematics. Born in Cortland, New York, he taught at normal schools before becoming professor of mathematics at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1901. He wrote many textbooks and works on teaching, including The Teaching of Geometry, and a two-volume History of Mathematics, and he edited and translated early mathematical texts such as Descartes's Geometry. He built a great collection of mathematical books and instruments, now at Columbia, and helped found the History of Science Society.